A history of English sexual morals / by Ivan Bloch ; translated by William H. Forstern.

  • Iwan Bloch
Date:
1936
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A history of English sexual morals / by Ivan Bloch ; translated by William H. Forstern. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and on 19th May 1867, ' the day of days in the Woman's Suffrage Calendar ', Mill proposed as an amendment to the c Representation of the People Bill', that the word man should be struck out and replaced by the word person. This was rejected by 202 votes to 83. Since then the Central Committee of the National Society for Woman's Suffrage, under the leadership of Mrs. Fawcett, worked actively to reach that goal towards which Mill strove1. Very interesting is the history of the part played by women in the medical profession in England. In the Middle Ages any woman who possessed knowledge of medicine was regarded as a witch. During the reign of Henry V a petition was presented: ' that no women use the practyse of fisyck under payne of long emprisonment.' Under Henry VIII women herbalists enjoyed special protection. Midwifery was practised by women in the Middle Ages. Not till 1518 were there accoucheurs, who however remained of inferior standing to the accoucheuses till 1750. But it was a man who by the discovery of the forceps made the greatest contribution to the ars obstetrica in thousands of years (Chamberlin about 1670). In 1671 a licensed midwife, Mrs. Jane Sharp, published the first book on midwifery: it went into four editions. As already mentioned, women's great dislike of male midwives persisted till the end of the eighteenth century. This is confirmed by recorded instances that are very quaint. Thus Miss Willughby, a midwife and daughter of Dr. Percy Willughby, wished on one occasion to bring her father into consultation on a very critical case. He did not venture to enter the room openly. 6 At my daughter's request', he says, 61 crawled in on hands and knees.' That was in 1618. And one hundred and fifty years later a distinguished obstetrician and professor was obliged 1 G. Hill, loc. cit.y pp. 35, 331. [Women's franchise was, of course, granted in 1915.] E [45]